I wrote about the snowy owls in Boundary Bay back in January. It took me until almost the end of March to make my way down to see them. It was more than worth the effort, and I was lucky they were still there.

I did not want to get too close or disturb them, but saw three that simply sat quietly for a long time just 15m from the dyke that held the path I was on. I stood, took photos, and just watched them until the sun went down. It was an excellent way to spend a sunny evening at the end of spring break.

People in the know are enjoying a wonderful wildlife spectacle in British Columbia these days. Snowy owls are flocking to Boundary Bay. We got to talking about them in class and why it is that these beautiful, large birds would come from their home in the arctic. We don't normally see snowy owls around Vancouver and certainly not in large numbers like this. Apparently, their visits occur every several years when the population of lemmings goes into decline (see this story from CBC News).

Many puzzled faces told me that many of us did not know what a lemming was, so we talked about them.  Of course, the familiar story about lemmings following one another en masse over cliffs came up, leaving many in the class incredulous.  Our diverted discussion was brief.  We talked about how nice it would be to go see the owls and moved on to other lessons on our agenda.  Though I knew the story had piqued the class's interest, I was surprised to find that the main activity in the classroom during our  inside rainy day lunch period was searching for and watching videos of lemmings collectively following others making bad choices.

Between the students' giggles, they kept asking, "Why would they do that?"  Why indeed! What a great question for budding young scientific minds to ponder! Perhaps some in my class will do some more digging for information.  Perhaps one of our readers will chime in with some thoughts, info, or expertise.  One observer has already offered that she had heard that some of the famed clif-diving video used in a documentary about lemmings was faked.  Imagine, someone publishing information that was untrue! Not only do budding scientists need to make sure that their investigations are based on reliable, accurate information, but thinking citizens need to ask questions and to know how to discern good information from tall tales.  So, I'm inviting our class to ask whether the stories and videos about the lemmings are true AND (more importantly) how they know, because if we don't question & investigate what we see and what we hear, we won't build knowledge, and we might even be guilty of just following the other lemmings.

We had a rich in-class discussion revising and refining our descriptions of polygons to make them more clear and precise.  We're going to go hunting for polygons now.  I look forward to seeing some interesting pictures and descriptions of the shapes found in them.

Our school is participating in the Vow of Silence, an annual campaign led by Free the Children.  Please join us in using our silence to give a voice to those who can't speak up for their rights.  We'll be back to blog about it after Nov. 19th.

(image from Free the Children http://www.iamsilent.com/new/ )

Virtues need to be demonstrated and taught.  At our school, we have highlighted ten virtues that matter to us and that we think are important for our students.  These are named in a large painting our students did a few years ago by our front entrance:

Respect             Service      Thankfulness & Courtesy

Responsibility     Honesty     Integrity

Kindness            Fairness     Empathy

Acceptance & Tolerance

We incorporate these into our lessons, into discussions about stories, and into dialogues about solving problems.  We revisit them continually throughout the year and from one year to the next.  It is important that we continue to revisit them.  Children need coaching and guidance as they practise negotiating their way through relationships & finding their places in the community.  But when I see the evidence of what is being modelled far too often in the larger community, it causes me grave concern, especially when it comes to the virtue we are highlighting at our school this month, Acceptance & Tolerance. 

Our city, following in the footsteps of our federal government, has declared October to be Islamic History Month (for the fourth consecutive year).  A local paper has been receiving letters of protest against the declaration this year, for the first time.   The fear displayed in some of those letters shows that we need to do more listening to and learning about others.  Unfortunately, to reach understanding and develop acceptance of difference, we need to be tolerant enough to at least listen to and learn about others.

If we needed a screaming alarm to tell us that acceptance and tolerance are areas needing our society's attention, there have been several, especially recently, that are deafening.  The number of young people being driven to commit suicide by ongoing torment from peers and/or from family about their sexuality is shocking.  But maybe I shouldn't be shocked.  When raised eyebrows and awkward pauses punctuate day-to-day conversations among polite company when the topic of homosexuality appears, that creates a fence that puts everyone who is perceived to be not heterosexual on the outside.  When so many people find they need to use the term "gay marriage" as if to be clear that they are not talking about real marriage, again everyone who is perceived to be not heterosexual is ostracised.  With all of these barbs scratching at someone throughout everyday encounters in the community, with the relentless accumulation of all these little incidents, I can imagine it wouldn't take much direct abuse for it all to seem like too much to take.

It is easy for these events to seem distant, like they are unconnected to our individual actions.  But we all help create the climate of our community.  I need to keep striving to listen to and learn about others and demonstrate acceptance and tolerance because I believe it is important.  I need to keep working to be the best guide/coach/model I can for my students and my family.  I need to make sure that I am not allowing the classroom, school, and community around me be one where people are shunned for being different.  The question I want to ask of my students, who will help create the community we all will live in, is, "When and how are you going to stop others from being ostracised because they are different?"